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It wasn’t the first time he was subjected to a shouting match between Lae’zel and Shadowheart, though surely it was one of the strangest ones yet. Perhaps it had been because of his comment to Shadowheart not a few days before about the githyanki’s flirting methods, but where before their annoyance for one another was as obvious as their attraction, now there was something about the way they were looking at each other that left one a bit embarrassed to witness it.
It was in the way that Shadowheart hesitated near the end as Lae’zel approached her, standing far too close, far too aggressively. In the way Shadowheart’s nose would flare as her eyes roamed across Lae’zel’s face and her hands would start to move as if she was going to take hold of Lae’zel. There was a heat in her expression that hadn’t been there before. The redness in her cheeks was less from anger and more from something a little more carnal.
Then, she would get this horrified look on her face, and splutter out a vague insult. Her faltering would put Lae’zel off, who would click her tongue in displeasure with an eye roll and wave Shadowheart off as she returned to her tent.
The hardest part to witness was the disappointment and confusion in Shadowheart’s face as Lae’zel disappeared. It left her breathless with her brows drawn together in a way that reminded Gale that she was young. That she lacked experience, be it from actually lacking experience or from having those memories taken away from her. He wondered if there wasn’t something he could say to help her process the emotions she was struggling with.
He was watching it one night when he felt a warmth grow behind him. A warmth that was less internal and more external. The feeling of Karlach approach was something that they’d all grown used to over their brief time traveling together. It was hard for her to sneak up on someone.
“It’s kind of embarrassing to watch, isn’t it?”
Gale turned to meet Karlach’s gaze as she slowed to a stop next to his seating place, the heat rolling off her in waves. It caused a smirk to form on his face at her words as she stared ahead, watching Lae’zel and Shadowheart’s strange near nightly ritual. She sat down next to him and made herself comfortable.
“It’s definitely a stark comparison to you and Wyll,” Gale confirmed. Even the smallest reference to it caused a smile to flicker onto her face. It was quite sweet. “I’m wondering for how long it will go on. Lae’zel made it out to me that a more, how should I say, combative courting method is common among githyanki.”
“Combative?!” Karlach let out a loud bark of laughter. “That’s one way of putting it, I guess! I remember at one point Shadowheart had a knife to Lae’zel’s throat!”
Gale let out a sigh and rubbed his finger and thumb against his temple. “I fear it’s telling how much this whole ordeal has affected me that I look back on that moment with fond memories.”
“It’s very them, though, isn’t it?”
He gave a noise of agreement as he looked back to where they were. Whatever argument had happened had come to a close. Shadowheart was glaring as Lae’zel gave one last noise of disapproval, looking her up and down, before spinning on her heel and stalking back to her tent.
“They just need to get their shit together. Like how you and Astarion did! It’d make this whole thing a lot easier on them.”
This time, he wasn’t quite as surprised. Between the rest of his camp mates, how could he be? Apparently whatever was going on between himself and the vampire had been noticed by everyone else, so Karlach would be no different. Whatever it was that was going on.
Gale gave a polite smile. “I’m not quite sure the comparison can be made.”
“Aw, c’mon! Don’t be shy about it. I know you never really told us, but it’s pretty obvious you’re both together.”
That threw him for a little bit of a loop, but he persevered and raised a finger to correct her. “Astarion and I are merely good friends with good banter, sorry to be the messenger for such uninteresting news. No ‘together’ to be had. My relationship with him is no different than my one with, say, your sweet self.”
“Oh, come off it, surely you don’t believe that!”
“I can only believe the truth that is right in front of me.”
She paused for a moment and leveled him with an odd, disbelieving look, before she continued to speak. “You’re a fool sometimes, but you’re no idiot.”
He felt a spike of irritation at the insult hidden in her words. Or maybe at the persistence she had, despite there still not having been any progress on understanding Astarion’s feelings about him. He wasn’t sure why she felt it reasonable to call him a fool, but he could overlook it on this occasion. If just to resolve the conversation quicker.
“Maybe you’re the fool for reading far too deep into things that are simply surface level.”
She heaved a sigh at his words. “I dunno, you can’t deny the way you almost… gravitate to each other. It’s romantic. Simple.”
His heart picked up. The look in her eyes inspired something in his chest that felt almost akin to hope. “Gravitate?”
“Yeah! No doubt in my mind that where one of you is, the other’s soon to follow.”
Gale found himself unable to hold her gaze. He looked over to where Shadowheart was left desperately organising her things in front of her tent in an attempt to busy herself. Perhaps to distract herself from the emotions going on in her head. It was a desire that Gale could relate to. He could quite happily bury his head in a book right about now.
“C’mon, soldier,” Karlach’s voice was soft beside him. He could almost imagine her patting his back reassuringly. “Why do you look so down?”
“I fear that you might put some kind of hope within me that shouldn’t be there,” he admitted as he continued to avoid her gaze.
“You should have hope! What makes you think he wouldn’t like you? You’re a catch!”
He gave a short laugh. “Thank you, but… I fear not everyone would agree with you.”
She was quiet at that, and he was content to let the matter rest. He felt a sudden kinship with Shadowheart; lost admist a swirling concoction of feelings that wouldn’t settle in his chest. Hope, that where his companions saw affection there may truly be some. Doubt that if the affection was linked to something more than mere passing fancy, someone as brazen as Astarion may have acted by that point.
“I don’t know either of you very well,” Karlach admitted. “Not yet, at least. But I’d like to think that after spending some time stuck to your sides with little tadpoles in our head, I’ve picked up on some things.”
“You thought we were together already.”
“I did,” she said. He made the mistake of looking up at her to see her fixing him with a smile that managed to be warmer than her body. “Only because you’re so natural together. That gravity, yeah? It’s like, a force neither of you even try to fight. Not really. You don’t see him when you’re not there. He smiles more when you’re about.”
Gale felt any words leave him. She left him sat there, speechless.
“You make him happy. That’s got to count for something, right?”
He licked his lips and summoned the will to respond, if only with, “right.”
Her smile widened into something a little cheekier. “Besides, I wouldn’t blame you for being a little nervous about him. I’d feel like I’d have to be on peak performance to impress him!”
He gave a bark of laughter. “He does seem to enjoy judging our blunders. And I seem to make plenty of those ever since our run in with the mindflayers.”
“You and me both!”
There was an honesty about Karlach that he valued. One that he hoped he would be able to match. Honesty - true, open, vulnerable honesty, wasn’t something that he allowed himself much of.
Perhaps, in the way that he valued hers, Astarion might value some pointed in his direction, too. There was nothing to say that under that bravado, the reason Astarion hadn’t acted was of the very same doubts that stopped Gale.
For that moment, however, he chose to spend some more time valuing Karlach’s efforts to comfort him.